When your customers purchase something from you, you enter into an understanding. It may never be verbalized or put into writing, but there is an agreement nonetheless. The agreement goes something like this:
- As the vendor, you agree to protect the privacy of the customer’s payment information to the best of your ability.
- In return the customer agrees to provide you with the payment information and, potentially, return for future purchases.
Once that agreement is broken, there is a strong likelihood that you’ve lost a customer. You’ve broken the trust in an already tenuous relationship held together by quality products, good customer service and reputation.
Security Breaches
The more institutions that store your credit card information, the more likely it is that a hacker will compromise your information. Target and Home Depot may be big enough brands to ride the storm of a security breach, but it still cost both companies greatly. Both companies, in an effort to restore the broken relationship with customers, claimed that customers whose credit card information was compromised would not be responsible for fraudulent charges. Somebody has to pay. And rest assured that regardless of the company branding, customers who were forced to deal with fraudulent charges on their credit cards thought twice before returning to the “scene of the crime”.
Similar breaches occur at gas pumps, too. Criminals rig the hardware readers at the point of sale (POS) outside the attendant’s line of sight and steal the credit card numbers of all who swipe there.
The Importance of Security and the Value of Convenience
To protect the relationship between you and your customer by protecting their sensitive information, you need a secure hardware reader. Mobile POS (mPOS) systems are no exception. Don’t compromise security in the name of convenience, especially when you can have both.
Apple Pay
On September 9, 2014 Apple introduced Apple Pay. When it comes to safety in POS and mPOS, Apple may be the most successful pioneer. Apple Pay enables iPhone 6 users to make purchases using near field communication (NFC). In other words, with Bluetooth technology, you can use your phone instead of a credit card.
What makes that more secure? Because the phone is assigned a device account number, nobody (including vendors) has access to your credit card information but you. For an added layer of protection, you can use fingerprint access on your phone to verify that it’s you making the purchase. Even if you lose your phone, your financial information remains secure. Even if the store where you shop is breached, your credit card numbers are still private.
Apple Pay-enabled POS and mPOS
Whether you’re a customer or a vendor or both, security and privacy should be a top priority. Using an Apple Pay-enabled POS or mPOS, like Bindo, gives you the opportunity to offer customers technological convenience as well as top level security. It’s a win-win for everybody in the unwritten, retail or e-commerce agreement.
Security breaches hurt everyone. Do your best to prevent them, for the sake of your company and your customers. Don’t sacrifice security for the sake of convenience, and don’t make security so inconvenient it deters potential customers. Use a POS system that incorporates both values.
